Steelers Source

NFL Network has reported that the meeting between Ben Roethlisberger and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has concluded, with Goodell reducing his earlier suspension of Roethlisberger from 6 to 4 games for his compliance with the League’s guidelines given with the initial suspension.

In other news it appears that after testing today in Pittsburgh, Bryon Leftwich has suffered a second degree sprain to his medial collateral ligament.  This type of injury is serious and I would expect sideline Leftwich for a number of regular season games. It should be interesting to see if the reigns get handed to Dennis Dixon or if Charlie Batch will be called upon to lead the Steelers for the early part of this season.

You have got to be kidding me. There is not much information out on this and the Steelers have yet to confirm the story, but rumors are the running back Rashard Mendenhall has broken his arm. If this is true, he will most likely miss significant time this year and with Beer Bong’s suspension, this makes a shaky offensive situation terrifying. I hope you are ready Issac Redman because we need you in a big way.

UPDATE – According to Steelers Digest and NFL Network this is a false alarm and there is no truth to this rumor.

Show me the Money

For those that haven’t heard about it yet, Steelers 1st round draft pick, Maurkice Pouncey is being investigated by the NCAA over an allegation that he accepted $100,000 from an agent during last year’s college bowl season.  Full article for more background from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Personally, I couldn’t care less.  I was hoping that all of the big conferences in college realigning a month ago was going to lead them to a decision to ditch the NCAA all together. The NCAA has no interest in anything other than self-preservation of the status quo.  Four years to investigate USC?  Think the television revenue had anything to do with that?

Under the current rules players on scholarship are not even allowed to work for some spending money.  Meanwhile their efforts subsidize entire athletic departments, and in some cases make the school a significant profit.  Of these players almost none ever get a sniff of the NFL.  It allows schools like Alabama to pay Nick Saban $5 million a season, who by the way should just shut up on this topic.

So Maurkice, I hope you didn’t spend it all in one place.

Adrian Jones

Problem solved, yeah right. Today the Steelers signed offensive lineman Adrian Jones. Jones was a fourth round draft pick of the New York Jets back in 2004, where he started in 44 games. Lately he spent 2008 with the Kansas City Chiefs starting 10 games, and last season on the Houston Texas’ practice squad. He’s a big body at 6-4 and 330 pounds, but I’m not doing cartwheels given some of the bigger names that were unsigned free agents.

Flozell Adams

The season must be coming soon, as my powers of prediction are returning in full force. Free agent offensive tackle, and former member of the Dallas Cowboys, Flozell Adams spent the day visiting with the Steelers. Adams spent his day participating in a physical and workout for the team. This on the heels of today’s news that tackle Willie Colon will need surgery to repair an Achilles tendon injury suffered earlier this week. You can read my article from a month ago here.

Hopefully an offer is in the making. Tackles are increadibily hard to find, and while he’s at the end of his career, Adams will not be waiting too much longer to find a home for this season.

Chirs Scott

More bad news today for the Steelers offensive line. Willie Colon is schedule for surgery on his Achilles injury tomorrow, so yesterday’s early reports were true and you can scratch Colon for the season. Also offensive tackle Chris Scott hurt his foot last week during a training session and will also be going in for surgery.

According to Steelers director of football operations Kevin Colbert. “Rookie offensive lineman Chris Scott suffered a foot injury while working out at the University of Tennessee last week. As stated earlier, Willie Colon suffered an Achilles injury while working out on Monday. Both were evaluated by Steelers’ medical personnel today and they are scheduled for surgery on Wednesday. We will have further information regarding both once we know the results of each of their surgeries.”

According to the National Football Post, Steelers offensive tackle (and one of my favorite targets) Willie Colon has injured is Achilles tendon during a workout session. If this report is true, Colon would most likely be finished for the year. Hopefully that makes my ideas about Flozell Adams and/or Logan Mankins more realistic…